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Analysis

It is a simple, uncontroversial principle: U.S. taxpayer dollars should never go to terrorists who attack U.S. citizens, interests, or allies. Yet, that is exactly what happens with U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority. Congress needs advance American values and interests in peace by clearly stopping this practice.

There is bipartisan consensus for the need to fight Islamic terror central, and yet the American taxpayer helps finance an organization that incentivizes terrorism. Every year the Palestinian Authority (PA) spends hundreds of millions of dollars rewarding attacks on civilians, contributing directly to the wave of stabbings in Israel that took the life of U.S. Army veteran Taylor Force last year, among dozens of others.

“The issue is not that we don’t support the needs of the Palestinians,” Dr. Michael Makovsky — president and CEO of the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA) in Washington, DC — told The Algemeiner. “We do, but the PA needs to stop supporting terror, and until it does so, we should stop aiding the PA incentivize and reward terror.”

On October 11, 2017 JINSA Distinguished Fellow and Gemunder Center Iran Task Force Co-Chair General Charles Wald, USAF (ret.), testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on confronting the full range of Iranian threats.

A year ago, West Point graduate and combat veteran Taylor Force was stabbed to death by a young Palestinian who also wounded 12 others in an attack on tourists in Israel. It is tragic and ironic that Taylor risked his life serving the United States in combat deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq, only to be senselessly killed as a civilian. Sadly, he joined a long list of Americans killed in Palestinian attacks over the years. The Senate recently reintroduced legislation bearing his name - the Taylor Force Act - to help protect Americans, Israelis and other innocent victims from his fate. Congress must pass the Taylor Force Act.

Over the course of its history, Israel has faced a series of attempts to uproot the Jewish people from its land, including terrorism and massive conventional armies. Today the main threat comes from thousands of rockets and missiles in the hands primarily of Hezbollah, Hamas and their patron Iran. Israel's development of missile defenses to counter this threat is a technological triumph, but also creates a set of strategic dilemmas.

A year after the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on Iran’s nuclear program was announced, Iran unquestionably has gotten the better of the deal. The agreement made public last July in Vienna, and the policy decisions attending its implementation, show a clear pattern of unilateral Iranian demands being met by unforced U.S. concessions. In consequence, Iran’s nuclear weapons program and sway in the Middle East will continue to grow, while U.S. deterrence and influence will diminish and the risks of conflict will mount.